Goa bandh disrupts life, KTC buses run

GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 05 July 2010 19:52 IST

Panaji market was fully closed

The ‘double bandh’ in Goa was successful to a large extent in the cities of Goa, but not in the villages.

After a successful bandh today, private bus owners have threatened of indefinite bandh if the government does not hike the bus fair by Sunday, 11 July.

Along with the BJP's call of Bharat Bandh, the local private bus owners had also gone off the road today, demanding hike in bus fair.

The local BJP leaders were seen monitoring the bandh in most of the cities, but police arrested mainly Shiv Sena activists, including their state in-charge Upendra Gaonkar.

Shops and establishments in most of the prime cities like Panaji, Margao, Mapusa, Vasco and Ponda remained completely closed. Evan other taluka towns, except Valpoi, remained closed.

The aura of health minister Vishwajeet Rane appeared dominant in Valpoi, from where he would be now once again contest as the Congress candidate, after resigning as the independent MLA.

Though all the private buses stayed off the roads, quite a few Kadamba Transport Corporation buses were seen running, with police protection, without any untoward incidents. The BJP protesters tried to put blockades in some places, but police immediately cleared it.

BJP workers protesting in MapusaThough several schools, government offices as well as private establishment were open, attendance was meagre. Roads of main cities and towns were seen deserted, reminding Goa of ‘60s and ‘70s.

BJP leader Manohar Parrikar claimed of having total bandh, while thanking the people of Goa for supporting the cause of their protest against the hike in fuel prices that would lead to price rise in every sphere.

Transport director Arun Desai however claimed that they managed to run all the routes with KTC buses, though private buses stayed off the roads.


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The price of petrol per liter was around two and half dollars per GALLON in the US when I last visited in August 2009. The US Gallon is about four and half liters, so the cost per liter works out to about Rs. twenty per liter. The per capita income in US is many times more than in India and so you can very well judge for yourself why a daily wage earner there can afford to travel in his own car . Again the low cost of petroleum there has made the day to day consumption commodities very cheap and affordable making the life of a common man easy and he can eat good food even when he earns daily wages. Compare this with our country where the taxes imposed on a liter of petrol are much more than its production cost and the common man is fooled all the time that the price hike is due to rise in the international price of crude!

It is obvious that the corrupt politicians and babus are shameless and busy only in collecting wealth by hook or crook and depositing it in swiss banks and elsewhere as they have correctly judged a section of the voters who can be easily manipulated to come to power again and again, irrespective of whatever anti people policies are thrust upon them! The opposition is not studying the problem properly and unable to expose the the corrupt in a logical and analytical way at the right forum!

God only save this country!

- vishwas prabhudesai, loliem | 07 th July 2010 19:17

 

THE TOTAL BANDH OBSERVED BY GOANS WAS VOLUNTARY AS GOANS WANTED TO SHOW THAT THEY ARE HELPLESS FOR AT LEAST NEXT TWO YEARS WITH THIS SET OF FORTY HONORABLE GOANS WHO ARE MAKING GOA THE MOST CORRUPT, LAWLESS, UNSAFE, AND DANGEROUS PLACE IN THE WORLD.

WE DESERVE BETTER EDUCATED LEADERS

PRESENT SET IS KAMDARS

AND NOT AMDARS

- ABEL BARRETTO, CHAUDI CANACONA | 07 th July 2010 16:14

 

Thanks Vishwas for the input. Since petrolium products are base of any economy, thier prices should be without any taxes so that Price rise can be very well controlled. It is very sad to see OUR educated politicians are supporting to BANDH which only hampers national productivity.

- Shekhar Gaitonde, Panaji Goa | 07 th July 2010 11:02

 

Petrol and Gas are the two most essential commodities of every household in Goa and the rest of India. In the recent years ever since the Congress came to power, a sharp rise in the prices of these two commodities specially the petrol is seen. It had increased every few months when congress took over the reigns of power. Though it did increase during the BJP led Government but not as many as the number of times during the Congress Rule.

When the price of Petrol was $149.00 per barrel, the per litre price was Rs. 50.00 for the common users. But when the prices came down suddenly from $149.00 per barrel to only $49.00 per barrel, the Indian price for the common user came down only by Rs 10.00 that also in two installments. (Rs 5 + 5) thereby bringing down the price to Rs 40.00 for the common user when actually it should have come down to round about Rs 22.00 per litre.

The government derives great pleasure in increasing the prices of petrol. Why are all the huge central and state taxes levied on petrol? Where does this tax money go? Most probably to Swiss Bank or some other fictitious accounts of the ministers.

This causes great sufferings to the common people of India. The inflation of petrol prices causes a rise in the transportation charges which in turn effects the prices of the more essential commodities like vegetables and other necessities which need transportation from the source of origin to consumer destination. Eventually where tomatoes or onions used to cost Rs 5 per KG it would cost Rs 20 per KG. Now if such necessities are increased then where will the common man go and get the money to buy these necessities?

The BJP may have called for a total bandh in Goa and the rest of the Country, but that will not solve the issue. The prices will not be brought down come what may. There will be protests for sometime and will gradually die away. The one solution could be to bring the country to a standstill for at least a week which would cause the government a loss in Crores. Or every citizen should park their cars and motorcycles at home and travel to work by buses. This would result in a nil sale of petrol and cause a loss in crores to the Swiss Bank accounts. But in no way these bandhs will help in solving the issue.

- Menino G. P. T. Fernandes (Valpoi/UK), United Kingdom of Great Britain | 07 th July 2010 00:42

 

As mentioned in the "Lokmat " newspaper dated 4th July, if the price of one liter of petrol comes to only Rs. 16/50, and all the rest being various taxes by the Central and State Govts.! That amounts to almost 37 rupees per liter of taxes!

Can this be called tax or it is simply looting the helpless common man? There is no rationale behind levying such abnormally high taxes because the petroleum price hike always leads to cascading effect, making life of a common man miserable!

There are no bench marks for working of the oil companies which are overstaffed and all this inefficiency is directly passed on to the common man, which has no justification!

More over the money collected through various taxes is never spent properly and a major chunk of this goes back in the pockets of the corrupt politicians and babus through commissions, cuts and underhand dealings which have become a part of every Govt project/ scheme ! This bribe money again finds its way into Swiss banks and slush funds which are used to garner votes at the time of elections!

Shame on the whole system!

- vishwas prabhudesai, loliem | 06 th July 2010 10:50

 

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